Sea Survival



I spent a busy weekend completing some short sailing related courses over the weekend both as part of my attempts to complete my RYA Yachtmaster qualification and to educate myself in areas where I have little experience. The courses were:
1. RYA/ISAF Offshore Safety - This was taught on the first day, with the 'fun' elements being setting off flares/fire extinguishers (in a field) and winching the instructor out of the sea. Well it would have been fun if the weather hadn't been so bad. There was also quite of a lot of classroom work on some basic first aid and how to stay on the boat and keep the boat safe when offshore.
2. RYA First Aid - Since the other 2 courses covered some of this course, 3 of us spent the Saturday evening filling in the gaps to complete the RYA first aid (one of the basic parts of the RYA yachtmaster)
3. RYA Sea Survival - This was the most interesting and covered how to survive without your boat. After watching lots of scary films, hearing horror stories and learning about the dangers of cold water (you don't need to teach Ruth about that) we had the pool session. This was very interesting and a lot more fun. It is amazingly hard to get into a liferaft (at least ours has a decent ladder). We also practiced turning it over and other survival techniques. The theory section was educational, I never knew that once you get into a liferaft you have to pee in the first 2 hours and not drink any water in the fist 24.
I think I will try and stay in the boat. Sorry about the poor quality pictures - they were taken on the mobile phone.


Posted: Mon - July 2, 2007 at 02:28 PM          

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